The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-01-07
BLIGHT OF THE SALOON.


1t Is Not Only Seen Upon the Husband
and Father But Embraces Innocent
Creatures Dependent Upon Him.
What would be thought of the med
ical administration which, in the time
of great epidemic, concerned itself
chiefly in providing additional hospital
accommodations, and paid no attention
to the origin and mode of prevention
of the prevailing disease? In the case
of the saloon in society the facts are
continually in evidence. Our police
courts are mainly occupied with the
petty otfenses which spring directly or
indirectly from drink. Through them
drift the myriad wrecks which strew
the path of progress. In them is ex-
hibited, every day and all day, the ex-
tent, depth, paralyzing influence, of
the saloon. 1t is bad enough in politics,
but its social effects, especially among
the poor, are as those of pestilcncc.
The cruder element of community
is brutalized and retarded in its
growth by this influence. Another
element, that of the physically or intel
lectually feeble (always considerable,
and increasing with the growth of COM
petitive pressure), is condemned to
wretched fate by the same instru-
mentality. The people who have not
the energy of mind or body to form
clear and practical purposes, or to put
them in operation if formed, are the
easiest victims of the saloon. AS a
rule they arc sensitive, often morbidly
so. They brood over their weakness
and their failure. Naturally prone to
depression, they become iaundiced and
Responding. From that state of mind
to the craving for any kind of stimu-
liant the transition is natural and swift,
and the saloon does the rest. There
are thousands of families doomed to
Indulgence, disappointment, misery,
through life, that might have lived at
least in decent poverty and with self
respect, but to-day are plunged in hope
less ruin by drink, and are sinking out
of sight in the quicksand,
The churches lament the alienation |
of the poor and the working classes. |
The indifference of these to religion is
a standing cause of regret. The clergy |
say it is almost impossible to get near
the hearts of the masses. The sa-
loon is not guiltless in the matter, for it |
represents all the tendencies and infu- |
ences which make most strongly against |
religion and morality, and its atmos-
phcre is quite as fatal to spiritual de-
velopment as the drink it dispenses is
to the health of the body The poor
suffer in a thousand ways through their |
poverty, and one of the abuses prac-
ticed most audaciously upon them is
the adulteration of all the intoxicants |
sold to them. Alcoholic drinks made |
by the most honest processes arc bad |
enough in their consequences, but the |
drinks of commerce are sophisticated |
to such an extent that those who use |
them habitually and freely are exposed |
to a whole catalogue of diseases from |
which our ancestors, with all their in !
temperance, were free. The effect of |
many of the adulterants commonly en- |
ployed, moreover, is to excite the nerv- |
Gus system and act toxically upon the |
cerebral centers, with the frequent re-
suit of melting to maniacal deeds, |
which may very easily be ascribed to |
native sayagery of disposition.
The saloon, in fact, is an institution
for the compromising and dispensation
of poisons. These poisons, when
taken in excess (and sometimes when
taken in moderate quantities), cloud
the reason of the victim, extinguish for
the time his conscience and his moral |
convictions stimulate all that is fer0-
cious and brutal in him, and impel |
him frequently to the preparation of |
crimes. They do not affect all alike.
While they render some savage and
malignant, they make others imbecile
and incapable of self-protection, and
yet others they rouse to immortality.
Society, however, is exposed to injury
in some way from all who drink; and
since it is impossible to be sure that
any who drink may not drink to ex-
cess, and since all who drink to excess
are liable to become irresponsible, the
danger is perennial. Of its reality no
specific proof is needed. We have
only to look abroad in any direction to
see this Fully half the police and
judicial machinery of our cities is oc-
cupicd in dealing with the evils
which are produced, directly or
indirectly by the saloon. The
cost 70 society is enormous, but
when q nation makes an institution |
of the saloon it must be pre- |
pared to pay roundly for all the Access
series in the shape of prisons and police /
forces and courts and insane asylums
and warehouses. The prosperous tax
payer, who grumbles at the leyies made |
upon him, may be thankful that his |
bank account secures him at least par
tial freedom from the worst products
of the saloon. The poor mechanic,
whose narrow earnings compel him to /
accept the life of the tenement house, |
can not shelter himself in the same
way. He may be a temperate man
himself He may be Christian. He
NAV be DESTROYS of raising his family |
respectfully, and Of keeping them I'M
tainted. But the polluting contiguity
which poverty con1pels makes him an |
involuntary witness and auditor of all |
the brutalities and obscenities provoked |